DESCRIPTION: (Taken from the applicant's abstract) The Harvard Medical School Department of Dermatology Training Grant has a history of preparing individuals for careers in biomedical research relevant to the skin. These individuals have held Ph.D.'s, M.D.'s, and M.D./Ph.D.'s, and many have gone on to make contributions to academic dermatology and cutaneous biomedical research. The most recent funding period (1995-present) has continued this tradition. Of the nine individuals who have finished their training as of May 1999, eight remain in academic institutions and hold or have pending faculty positions, and five have already successfully competed for extramural funding (including three NIH K08's, one Dermatology Foundation CDA, and one Massachusetts Department of Health Research Grant). All five current trainees will remain in academic medicine for the foreseeable future. The Department of Dermatology at the Harvard Medical School has undergone substantial growth over this same period, and the total annual NIH funding held by faculty members is at an all time high. Research within the Department occurs principally at three sites: The Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Cutaneous Biology Research Center, the Massachusetts General Hospital/Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Dermatology Research Laboratories at the Harvard Institutes of Medicine. Faculty from all three sites, as well as additional faculty in clinical and basic science Departments at the Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard College of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, form the research network that comprises the Harvard Skin Disease Research Center. The Harvard Skin Disease Research Center was just competitively renewed for five years, and continues to be an important resource for training grant faculty and trainees. During the next funding period, the specific aims are: 1) to continue to recruit M.D. and M.D./Ph.D. physician scientists, as well Ph.D.s, who show exceptional promise in academic dermatology and/or skin biology; 2) to continue to broaden and enrich the scope of research and didactic opportunities available to these trainees; and 3) to foster interactions between trainees, advisors, and other faculty as a means of integrating the research experience of trainees across multiple institutions.